A blog for members of Westbury Baptist Church, people who want to know more about our ministry, or people who just want to chat.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Bold Humility

Imagine
your great-great-grandfather came to visit you here in the 21st
Century.You would have so much to show
him: Freeways, microwaves, television, cell phones.I wonder what he would think of indoor
plumbing and air conditioning?At some
point, he would notice that there is a special class of people in today’s world.We shower them with money.We pay close attention to every detail of
their lives: What clothes they wear, what sorts of houses they live in, who
they socialize with, fall in love with, break up with.If people in this special class tell us we
should buy a certain product, we do it.Some of these people are in this special class because they are
especially talented in some way: Athletics, singing, or acting, mostly.Some are in the special class because they
are especially attractive in a physical sense.And some are in the special class for no discernible reason whatsoever;
they just are.And what do we call these
special people?Celebrities.Have you ever wondered where that term came
from?It is actually a derivative of the
word “celebrate.”We think of
celebrating a holiday like Christmas or Easter.But one meaning of the word “celebrate” is “to hold up or play up for
public notice.”In other words, we make
a big deal out of them.We don’t often
use the word “celebrate” in that way, although occasionally you will hear
something like, “She is a celebrated author.”

So celebrities are people we
celebrate; people we pay special attention to, talk about, listen to, seek to emulate.Your great-great-grandfather would notice
that American culture in the 21st Century is obsessed with
celebrities.There’s even a documented
psychological disorder called Celebrity Worship Syndrome.In one article I read, a psychologist
speculated that 1/3 of the population might be afflicted with this
disorder.On the lower levels, it’s
pretty harmless: You are more likely to buy a magazine or watch a TV news show
if you think a celebrity you’re interested in will be talked about in it.At the moderate level, you put posters of
your favorite celebrity all over your bedroom, and fantasize about meeting him
or her. Your friends tease you about having a "crush" on this famous person. At the extreme level, you track
the celebrity’s movements.You truly
believe there’s a connection between you and him or her.You may even think your favorite celebrity is
communicating with you through some sort of code; perhaps hidden messages in
his movies or songs.In 1981, long
before anyone coined the diagnosis Celebrity Worship Syndrome, John Hinkley Jr
tried to kill President Reagan because he thought his favorite movie star,
Jodie Foster, would be impressed by his actions.

I
think we can all see the evil in that.And while none of us may have a dangerous fixation on a particular
famous person, I would argue that every one of us has a problem with a very
different form of celebrity worship.In
my opinion, our celebrity worship is much more destructive than any pop-culture
obsession could be. We don't celebrate Tom Cruise or LeBron James or Taylor Swift, we celebrate--make a big deal about--ourselves. We’re in a series
about boldness.Last week, we talked
about what boldness is.This week, I want us
to look at John the Baptist, one of the boldest people who has ever lived. But in the story we'll read Sunday, you'll see that he was also humble. Boldness and humility may seem to be mutually exclusive, but the person who is bold for the Kingdom will be inherently humble. And humility is the answer to our peculiar form of celebrity worship. Sunday, we'll talk about how our celebrity worship manifests itself in our lives, and how we can defeat it.